PEDAGOGY is what it is all about really.

The work that we did in 2008 was just the beginning. Engagement is about what we do to get the students to learn. It is about what we do when we are formatively assessing students.

In 2009 we took what has been written in the new curriculum and applied those ideas to the way that we structure our schemes and our lessons. New curriculum sessions focussed on these.
The first round of PD shared some SIX examples of what Pedagogy might look like and encouraged HOFs to facilitate discussion of these over this term. If they focus on one for each department meeting, that will keep the ideas in focus. The schemes will include a section on effective pedagogy.

The idea is that, in time, Effective pedagogy would be identified in all learning areas. The second part of that would be to write it into the schemes. The third part is to use that thinking to inform what you do in your units.

The effective pedagogy section of the new curriculum is not just somebody's good idea. It is based on research and evidence. The push towards Key Competencies is allied with Effective Pedagogy eg 'Encouraging reflective thought and action' is so obviously concerned with the T of TRUMP - Thinking.

downloadable document

This presentation was delivered by Graeme Aitken when I was at TEAM Solutions in 2004

Effective Pedagogy

Creating a supportive learning environment

Means

• Students feel understood and safe

• Learning cannot be separated from where students come from and the values they hold

• Foster positive relationships modeling respectful, warm, open interaction with students. Cohesive = belonging and creating a sense of community

• Positive interaction between school and wider community

• Value as individual

• Their culture has value

• Teacher also needs to be valued, respected, nurtured as a member of the teaching and wider community

• Respects diverse approaches

• No deficits

• Student centred

• Language is important

Looks like in our classrooms now:

• Co-operative learning strategies

• Differentiated lessons

• Relevant choices of texts to broaden understanding

• Acknowledging cultural traditions and providing the opportunity for students to share their own cultures

• Being aware of different beliefs and practices of students

• Valuing oral language

• Using students’ personal writing and speaking as a starting point

• Banning put-downs

• Co-construction of appropriate classroom rules

• Acknowledging and rewarding achievement, effort, good behaviour

• Classroom should reflect cultures of students

• Critical discussions – why do we think about this the way we do?

• Greeting students at the door

• Being interested in them as individuals

• Classroom seating plan – configuration of desks

• Having a happy classroom, having a sense of humour, being genuine and sensitive to needs of students

• Displaying student work

• Being positive and well-planned

• Valuing student contribution

• Encouraging sharing between students

• Accessing school’s learning support systems

• Creating a learning environment by shifting the locus of control – sharing the responsibility for learning

• Having high expectations and giving positive reinforcement in a way that students respond to

• Creating a learning environment where students feels safe to take risks

Encouraging reflective thought and action

Means:

• Giving opportunities and tools (taxonomies) to students to think about what they are learning. Ensuring they have the time to do this
• Providing time explicitly for reflection
• Critically evaluate how text is examined with a focus on processing text within its context and original purpose, considering why it was written, produced
• Responsibility for teaching thinking skills
• Self assessment and peer assessment
• Reflection = what I can do and what I need to work on. Reflection also = how am I thinking about this text and why and how can I improve the way I think?

Looks like in our classrooms now:

• Open-ended reflective questions
• Tasks which require evaluation
• Statement in scheme about reflective learning
• Making the levels of thinking explicit
• Teach a variety of transferable strategies
• Differentiated learning
• Define NAME requirements – higher levels of inferential and abstract thinking for M and E using exemplars and judgements
• Discussion of the ways students reach their conclusions – let them do this. Particularly useful for senior students reflecting on their own learning
• Ask students which way they learn or organize their learning – especially mind maps templates etc.
• Peer assessment
• On the lines/between the lines/ beyond the lines/ behind the lines (3 or 4 level guides)
• De Bono Six thinking Hats, Bloom’s taxonomy, Tony Ryan’s Thinking Keys
• Encourage confidence – to take risks and value their opinion
• Think, pair, share
• Personal response and reflection journals
• Weblogs; interactive with teacher
• Student created feed-forward
• Student evaluation of exemplars
• Folio approach to writing – revisiting their own work later in the year.
• Formal Writing at level 2 “Time Capsule” task allows students to reflect on their own development later in the year

Enhancing the relevance of new learning
Means:

• Clarifying the relevance and purpose of the learning
• Stimulate = engage
• Require = demand
• Challenge = apply new knowledge and relate to other contexts.
• Making connections within and across curriculum
• Teachers need to know where students are coming from in order to make learning relevant.
• Giving students more choice so they are more involved in decision-making – owning their learning
• Providing career links

Looks like in our classrooms now:

Student generated questions

• Text choice that extends students out of comfort zone, expands their imaginative experience
• Continuums, clines
• Co-operative setting of “success criteria” with class
• Learning objectives outlined in each lesson and task
• Self assessment and peer assessment
• Regular self-reflection
• Developing skills of asking “rich” questions – umbrella thinking, higher order questioning
• Thematic teaching
• Cross-curricular links
• Research and investigation
• Scaffolded tasks
• Providing relevance of lesson to future
• Explanations are given as to why texts are used linked to wider contexts
• Feed-forward is given regularly
• Criteria are given for tasks
• Choice of texts with generic tasks instead of set texts
• Opportunities for personal reading
• Making learning intentions very specific – eg design of a paragraph.

Facilitating shared learning

Means:

• Engagement

• Co-operative learning
• Involves the wider community
• Understanding of students – their learning styles, backgrounds, prior knowledge
• Encourage positive learning environment devoid of negativity
• Being explicit about thinking processes and strategies
• Mutual respect
• Variety of group strategies
• Learning conversations about feedback and feed-forward

Looks like in our classroom now:

• Tapping into community groups that play a role in students’ lives eg churches, sports groups, mentors

• Using student wiki, blogs and intranet
• Peer feedback
• Choosing texts that students can relate to
• Using students as experts which will lead to students taking a leadership role
• Cross curricular links eg literacy strategies
• Student led discussion and analysis
• Differentiation strategies
• Individual and group goal setting
• Validating student thinking
• Strong relationship with teacher
• Vocab work
• Mailing appointments to parents for interviews. Follow-up phone call. Students come with parents. Giving out reports at the parent interview
• Group work with roles given
• Fostering self-discipline within groups
• Teaching trust/facilitating interpersonal relationships
• Important that there is a preservation of self
• Recognising diversity – planning for differences and interrelationship contingencies
• Students take home work to share with their parents
• The teacher does the task set for the class at the same time they do it
• The teacher learns something new about the way students work by observation of groups

Professional dialogue between staff. Classroom observations, shared teaching

Making connections to prior learning and experience

Means:

• Knowing your students – academic/social/cultural/interests/schooling history

• Be wary of assumptions
• Validate all students’ understanding
• Share prior knowledge and experience
• Self-evaluation and goal setting
• Continuity of staff to enable students to feel that teachers know them. This enables teachers to build on what the students know.

Looks like in our classrooms now:

• Academic – evidence based

• Pretests – asTTle, PATs, ARBs, NCEA results information from previous schools. This evidence will lead to choice of texts and teaching pedagogy
• Knowledge of ethnicity and first language of students
• Knowledge of students’ social background – domestic circumstances, interests, co-curricular achievements, past behaviour records
• Thematic approach to teaching
• Making contacts with other departments and connecting topics between subjects
• Connecting texts to students’ lives
• Recognising where our gaps are and acknowledging that the teacher isn’t the font of all knowledge.
• Brainstorming
• Discussions – thinking about know
• Write/talk about what they know
• Foster links with feeder schools

Providing sufficient opportunities to learn

Means:

• Continuous learning opportunities

• Flexible assessment opportunities
• Student-centred learning
• Identifying individual needs
• Allowing time to revisit material
• Forging cross-curricular links and making contextual links clear

Looks like in our classroom now:

• Addressing learning styles and provide different opportunities for the same new learning

• Diagnostic assessment to determine teaching direction. Goals directed by student need
• Adopting Te Kotahitanga principles – co-constructing learning opportunities and valuing relationships
• Breaking down jargon in assessment criteria
• Ensuring enough time for English learning to occur
• Integration, consolidation and spiral learning
• Flexibility and creativity
• Integrating old with new and making links between past, present and future
• Cross-curricular integration
• Differentiated programmes
• Using opportunities to link current events and topical issues with learning
• Resubmission of assessments whilst maintaining breadth of curriculum
• Ensuring sufficient opportunities for formative work prior to summative assessment
• Don’t base curriculum on assessments, get away from credit focus.
• Portfolio writing

SOLO TAXONOMY
This is worth a look. Jo Beck has used it as part of her effective pedagogy.